Rich and OPB,

Some of my public sector colleagues would call me so "old fashioned" since I didn't understand the part of the financial equation that went "and then the miracle occurs".....

Once, I had a very delusional executive of a public agency pay me the supreme "compliment" that I "worried too much over the details"..... And, since these bond firm hucksters were making so much more on commission, than I was as a humble fiduciary for the taxpayer money we steal from you, obviously they knew more?

As to the earlier comment on GE. It was GE's financial arm with these same games, that almost took one of America's few remaining perfectly healthy world competitive industrial giants down. But, GE's locomotive leasing as best I can see, dwarfs CIT's activities. Although less competition is always bad, as it results in weak and smug companies, able to manipulate markets for profits, instead of having to innovate and compete. And, of course, this results in a bizarre and dangerous dependency for our economy which make us have to bail them out, becuase they've become "too big to fail".

Bob